1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to digital mobile telephones, and in particular to a mobile telephone and method for registering and using special symbols as a password in same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a mobile telephone and method for registering a secret symbol as a password, where the mobile telephone includes a character recognition function for recognizing alphanumeric characters and symbols inputted via a touch screen, to protect against unauthorized use of the mobile telephone.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional digital cellular mobile telephone is typically provided with a password registration function for registering a password to protect against an unauthorized user of the mobile telephone. Once an authorized user has registered a password, no one can make a phone call or use any particular function of the mobile telephone without inputting the registered password beforehand. For instance, a call locking function is generally incorporated in most mobile telephones for the purpose of protecting against unauthorized use. The call locking function provides a method for registering and identifying a password inputted by a potential user of the telephone and preventing use of the telephone if an incorrect password is inputted.
A typical or conventional password registration and identification function applicable in prior digital mobile telephones usually uses a password having a series of alphanumeric characters that are keyed-in by means of a key pad provided on an outside or front panel of the telephone. When the password is keyed-in on the key pad by a user, it may be inadvertently observed by a third person, such that the password becomes compromised. Further, such an alphanumeric password may be stolen by or revealed to a third person due to a limited amount of alphanumeric characters making up the password. Under these circumstances, such a conventional password registration and identification function would become useless as a means for providing security against unauthorized use of the mobile telephone and hence, the function fails to serve its originally intended purpose.
Furthermore, if the authorized user forgets the series of alphanumeric characters making up the password, or keys in an incorrect password using the key pad, then use of the mobile telephone by the authorized user is also prevented.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a mobile telephone having a character recognition function for registering at least one secret symbol inputted via a touch screen as an effective password to protect against unauthorized use of the mobile telephone.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for registering and using a set of secret symbols in a digital mobile telephone having a character recognition function as a password, thereby protecting against unauthorized use and providing easy use of the mobile telephone.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method for registering and using a set of secret symbols as a password in a digital mobile telephone having a character recognition function capable of recognizing the secret symbols, for example, a signature of an authorized user or the user""s predetermined hand-written characters, thereby protecting against a misuse of the telephone by unauthorized users.
Still, another object of the present invention is to provide a method of registering and using a password in a digital mobile telephone to guard against an authorized user from being unable to use the telephone due to forgetting the password or keying-in the wrong password.
To achieve the above objects, the present invention provides a mobile telephone having a touch screen, character recognition means for recognizing data inputted via the touch screen, and a processing unit for receiving at least one secret symbol inputted via the touch screen while the mobile telephone is in a password registration mode. The processing unit provides the at least one secret symbol to the character recognition means for recognizing the at least one secret symbol and generating feature data corresponding thereto. The processing unit further stores the feature data in a database to register the at least one secret symbol as a password. The processing unit compares the stored feature data with feature data corresponding to data inputted via the touch screen for determining whether the inputted data is substantially similar to the at least one secret symbol while the telephone is in a password identification mode.
The present invention further provides a method for registering a secret symbol as a password in a digital mobile telephone having a display, a touch screen, character recognition means, a secret symbol data base, and a central processing unit. The method includes the steps of placing the mobile telephone in a password registration mode; generating touch screen data upon application of pressure onto the touch screen while in the password registration mode to enter the secret symbol as the password; providing the character recognition means with the touch screen data; generating feature data corresponding to the touch screen data by driving the character recognition means; and storing the feature data into the secret symbol data base.
The touch screen data preferably includes coordinate data and status data. The coordinate data includes a series of X-axis and Y-axis coordinate values which correspond to pressure points on the touch screen which had pressure applied upon during entry of the secret symbol. The status data is used for determining an input character which was entered during entry of the secret symbol by analyzing the frequent application of pressure upon the pressure points.
Further, the feature data preferably includes coordinate data generated corresponding to the X- and Y-axis coordinates of the secret symbol; directional data corresponding to directions of movement in entering the secret symbol; and stroke data corresponding to a series of strokes defining the secret symbol.
Preferably, the secret symbol may include at least one character, one""s signature, a numeral, or a combination thereof, which an authorized user of the mobile telephone intends to use as the password.
According to another aspect of the invention, a method is provided for identifying a secret symbol which has been registered as a password in a digital mobile telephone having a display, a touch screen, character recognition means, a secret symbol data base, and a central processing unit. The method includes the steps of placing the mobile telephone in a password identification mode; generating touch screen data and a password symbol message upon application of pressure onto the touch screen while in the password identification mode to enter at least one secret symbol as the password, the password symbol message providing a confirmation that the touch screen data includes the at least one secret symbol intended to be identified as the password; providing the character recognition means with the touch screen data and the password symbol message; generating feature data corresponding to the touch screen data by driving the character recognition means; comparing feature data stored within the secret symbol data base with the generated feature data and providing a resultant value; and placing the mobile telephone in a predetermined function service mode in accordance with the comparing step. The predetermined function service mode may include enabling a locking function to prevent use of at least one service provided by the mobile telephone.